CHARLESTON — With the federal government shutdown going into its second month and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits paused as of Saturday, Gov. Patrick Morrisey is directing more state funding to West Virginia’s largest food banks.

In a press conference Friday afternoon at the Governor’s Reception Room at the State Capitol Building, Morrisey announced an additional $2.5 million was being sent to the state’s two largest food banks — Mountaineer Food Bank in Gassaway and Facing Hunger Foodbank in Huntington — to purchase food. Those organizations are also cutting checks to smaller food banks and pantries across the state to purchase food.

“I’ve said very clearly from the very beginning that we are not going to let West Virginians go hungry,” Morrisey said. “Here in West Virginia, we have to keep coming up with solutions for our people and solving problems, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has since announced that SNAP benefits nationwide would be paused beginning Saturday, affecting 40 million Americans and more than 270,000 West Virginians who depend on the program, formerly known as food stamps.

Morrisey announced Tuesday that the state has up to $13 million in contingency funding left over from the COVID-19 pandemic it was willing to distribute evenly between Mountaineer Food Bank and Facing Hunger Foodbank.

On Wednesday, the state distributed $5 million to those organizations, bring the total distributed from the Governor’s Civil Contingency Fund to $7.5 million.

Morrisey announced last week that he was expediting $1.1 million appropriated by the Legislature for the current fiscal year so those food banks could have those funds immediately. That takes the funding total to $8.6 million

“We’re doing this to get the money out in front so that there isn’t an issue,” Morrisey said. “None of us can truly predict what’s going to happen tomorrow and in the upcoming days, so I always want to be ahead of the curve. … We believe that this is going to be able to put us into a good position to get deep into next week, but we’re going to keep assessing.”

Individuals, organizations and businesses are also being encouraged to donate money to Mountaineer Food Bank and Facing Hunger Foodbank to help match the state’s monetary investment with the foodbanks. Those wishing to donate can do so by going to governor.wv.gov.

The food banks are dividing monetary donations between each other, with donations being earmarks for helping West Virginia’s SNAP recipients and other state residents in need of food. Morrisey said he has not yet been provided with how much both food banks were receiving in monetary donations. Other organizations and businesses, such as the United Way and Mountaintop Beverage, have provided assistance.

“I’m really hopeful that the effort is really going to be launched into another level soon, because we’re now starting to get additional commitments, and that makes all the difference in the world,” Morrisey said. “Even this morning, we heard of different people and companies stepping up.

“I think also, as some of the media do PSAs (public service announcements), I think that the word’s going to get out,” Morrisey continued. “I think we’re going to start to really judge it and see after this weekend and on Monday, and we’ll probably see more and more (support).”

SNAP recipients and others needing assistance are encouraged to dial the state’s 211 service or visit WV211.org to be connected to local food banks and pantries. The West Virginia National Guard has also been mobilized to assist local food banks and pantries with logistics and food distribution. Maj. Gen. James Seward, the adjutant general of the Guard, urged the public to use 211 to alert officials if a pantry has run out of food.

“We’re going to have our folks on the ground with food from Mountaineer Food Bank and Facing Hunger Food Bank available to try to fill that gap,” Seward said. “We’ve made plans for resupply for those locations this weekend. … We will also have our National Guard forces going from food pantry to food pantry throughout the state this weekend, checking to see if we can help, and checking to see if additional inventory is needed.”

The electronic benefit transfer processing services company West Virginia and other states use — Fidelity Information Services — is unable to accept direct state funding towards EBT cards held by SNAP recipients in West Virginia.

“Obviously, we’re challenging our vendor. Many states are in the same boat that we are,” Morrisey said. “A lot of states are asking the same question: Why can some vendors do it and others can’t? We keep pressing to get to the bottom of that, and that’s what we’ll do. But in the meantime, this is the most effective way to do it.”

Morrisey has faced calls from members of the House Democratic caucus urging him to either use more funding available to him from the Governor’s Civil Contingency Fund or call the Legislature into special session to appropriate additional monies to the food banks. Morrisey said Friday he was prepared to do that if necessary.

“Sometime next week, depending on how the resources are being used, I’m not afraid to call the Legislature back,” Morrisey said. “We emptied one of our accounts here, but we believe we would want to go and work with the Legislature if more resources are needed. And we’re prepared to do that.”

Saturday marked the 32nd day of the federal government shutdown that began on Oct. 1 when a Republican-supported continuing resolution to fund the government through Nov. 21 failed to get the 60 votes needed to be fully considered by the U.S. Senate. Since then, there have been 13 votes on the resolution. A Democrat-backed proposal that ties government funding to extensions of Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year has also failed to clear the 60-vote threshold.

Morrisey called on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to free his members to support the clean resolution next week, restore funding to the federal government and allow SNAP benefits to flow again.

“This dysfunction in Washington needs to come to an end, and I’m calling on everyone to end this because the stakes are far too high for West Virginia and our country,” Morrisey said. “There’s a clean CR on the table. They can get this done immediately.”